Janisse Ray + Speakers

The keynote speaker at the 12th annual Watershed Leadership Conference in Montgomery on February 28-March 2 will be award-winning writer, naturalist, and environmental activist.

Janisse Ray is author of three books of literary nonfiction. She is on the faculty of Chatham University’s low-residency MFA program, and is a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. She holds an MFA from the University of Montana, and in 2007 was awarded an honorary doctorate from Unity College in Maine.

Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, a memoir about growing up on a junkyard in the ruined longleaf pine ecosystem of the Southeast, was published by Milkweed Editions in 1999. Besides being a plea to protect and restore the glorious pine flatwoods of the South, the book looks hard at family, mental illness, poverty, and fundamentalist religion. Thinker Wendell Berry called the book “well done and deeply moving.” Anne Raver of The New York Times said of Janisse Ray, “The forests of the South find their Rachel Carson.”

Ray’s second book, Wild Card Quilt: Taking a Chance on Home, about rural community, was published by Milkweed Editions in early 2003.

The third, Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land, the story of a 750,000-acre wildland corridor between south Georgia and north Florida, was published by Chelsea Green in 2005.

Ray has won a Southeastern Booksellers Award 1999, an American Book Award 2000, the Southern Environmental Law Center 2000 Award for Outstanding Writing, and a Southern Book Critics Circle Award 2000.  Ecology of a Cracker Childhood was a New York Times Notable Book and was chosen as the Book All Georgians Should Read.

She has been visiting professor at Coastal Carolina University, scholar-in-residence at Florida Gulf Coast University, and writer-in-residence at Keene State College and Green Mountain College. She was the John and Renee Grisham writer-in-residence 2003-04 at the University of Mississippi.

Ray’s essays appear in the anthologies American Crisis, Southern Solutions; A Road Runs Through It; Where We Stand: Voices of Southern Dissent; Elemental South; The Roadless Yaak; Where the Mountain Stands Alone; and The Norton Anthology of Nature Writing, among others. She has published in such periodicals as Audubon, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Hope, Natural History, Oprah Magazine, Orion, Sierra and The Washington Post. She writes poetry and fiction as well as nonfiction, and has been a radio commentator for Vermont and Georgia public radio.

Ray produced In One Place: The Natural History of a Georgia Farmer by Milton Hopkins, out in 2001. She co-edited, with Susan Cerulean and Laura Newton, Between Two Rivers: Stories from the Red Hills to the Gulf (2004). An anthology of collected local stories about a Georgia preserve, Moody Forest, came out in 2008.

As an organizer and activist, Janisse Ray works to create sustainable communities, local food systems, a stable global climate, intact ecosystems, clean rivers, life-enhancing economies, and participatory democracy. Ray attempts to live a simple, sustainable life on a farm in southern Georgia with her husband, Raven Waters. She has a college-age son, Silas. She is an organic gardener, tender of farm animals, slow-food cook, and seed-saver.  

Speaker Bios 2010 Watershed Leadership Conference:

Bennett Bearden, “The Alabama Water Resources Spectrum:  Emerging Concepts in Law and Policy”

Bennett is the Assistant Attorney General and Counsel to the State Geologist of Alabama, Office of the State Geologist, Geological Survey of Alabama (GSA). In this position, he is involved in a range of initiatives to foster water resources assessments and investigations with federal, state and local agencies.  Trained as a water lawyer, he represents the Office of the State Geologist at the Geological Survey of Alabama (GSA) and assists GSA's water team in developing legal and policy recommendations for the Permanent Joint Legislative Committee on Water Policy and Management.   Bennett received B.S. in Geology and M.S. (geology) degrees from the University of Alabama.  He received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Birmingham School of Law (ranked no. one academically in his class) and his Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree in Commercial and Corporate Law (with honors) from the University of London.  Bennett also holds a post-graduate Certificate in Watershed Management from the University of British Columbia.  He is currently a doctoral candidate (J.S.D. degree) in water law and policy at McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific, in Sacramento, California, where he was the recipient of the 2008 Slater International Water Law Award.  Bennett is a member of the Alabama State Bar, the Washington, DC Bar and is admitted to the Roll of Solicitors in England and Wales.  

Burton Benkwith, “Water Efficiency and Sustainability”

Burton Benkwith works for Jackson Thornton and Company, a CPA firm headquartered in Montgomery, AL.  For the last ten years he has been involved primarily in the areas of Cost of Service, Rate Design and Financial Forecasting for utilities across the southeast.  He is a Certified Energy Procurement Professional and has taught in Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky, Texas, Colorado and Massachusetts.

Nelson Brooke, “Staying on top of Permits and Public Comments”

Nelson has been Black Warrior Riverkeeper's staff Riverkeeper since January of 2004. He also served as Executive Director from August 2007 through December 2009.  As Riverkeeper, Nelson patrols and photographs the Black Warrior River and its tributaries, looks for pollution problems, responds to citizen complaints, researches and analyzes polluters' permits, collect pollution samples for laboratory analysis when necessary, educates the public about the beauty of the river and threats to it, advocates compliance with environmental laws, and is a spokesman for the Black Warrior River watershed. A Birmingham native, he attended The Altamont School in Birmingham and graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with an anthropology degree. Nelson is an Eagle Scout and outdoor enthusiast who has enjoyed fishing and hunting along the banks of the Black Warrior River since he was seven years old. 

Casi Callaway, “Muddy Water Watch, An Overview”

Casi Callaway is the Executive Director and Baykeeper for Mobile Baykeeper. Her responsibilities include organizing, researching and educating the community on issues that affect our public health, environment and quality of life for the Mobile Bay Area. Specific duties include fundraising, building and developing membership, researching environmental issues, community speaking, acting as liaison between the community, business and civic leaders, and working to build a coalition of citizens who are concerned about Mobile Bay. She works regionally on Gulf of Mexico program issues and brings broad issues back to South Alabama for implementation. 

Dr. Bill Deutsch, "Alabama Water Watch Database: Black Hole or Vehicle for Positive Change"

Dr. Bill Deutsch has been a Research Fellow in the Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures at Auburn University for 20 years, with degrees in Zoology, Biology, Anthropology and Aquatic Ecology. He previously worked 11 years as a Research Biologist and Director of Aquatic Research with environmental consultants in Pennsylvania. Bill is the Director of a citizen volunteer water-monitoring program, Alabama Water Watch, and he also directs Global Water Watch, a network of international water monitoring groups. He has made about 60 trips to 20 countries working on watershed projects, particularly related to community-based environmental stewardship with rural people and indigenous groups.   

Barbara Evans, “How to Effectively Raise Hell” and “How to Lobby”

Barbara Evans joined WildLaw as Organizing Coordinator after ten years of anti-landfill work in Lowndes, Macon and Conecuh Counties.  The former Executive Director of nonprofit consumer group Alabama Watch, Barbara has spent most of her adult life as a southern organizer and activist.  She spent many years as a labor organizer and worked as a paralegal with both the Alabama and Georgia Legal Service Programs.  Barbara lives in rural Lowndes County with her three dogs.  She is a co-founder of the annual Okra Festival held each August at her art gallery, “Annie Mae’s Place”, and writes and publishes a community newsletter, “Esther’s Trumpet”. 

Jim Felder, “Blue Trails”

Jim is the Executive Director of the Alabama Scenic River Trail, the nation’s longest one state river trail.  The original Trail begins at the Georgia state line on the Coosa and winds its way south across nine beautiful lakes, with scenery ranging from magnificent wildlife preserves and steep stone cliffs to the tranquil beauty of the secluded creeks of the Delta region, terminating at Ft. Morgan in the Gulf of Mexico. The trail, with its new corridors and spurs now counting over a thousand miles, networks almost every corner of Alabama. 

Kathy Stiles Freeland, “The Forever Wild Program”

Kathy Stiles Freeland has been an environmental activist in Alabama since the first Earth Day 1972.   She served on the board of the former Alabama Conservancy (now Alabama Environmental Council for several years where she learned from the best, Mary Burks. Kathy founded and served as Executive Director of the 1,000 acre Ruffner Mountain Nature Center from 1977-1989; she left Ruffner to establish The Nature Conservancy’s first office in Alabama and was its Executive Director from 1989 to 2002.  While at TNC, she was a leader of the effort to establish Alabama’s first state funded land conservation program -- the Alabama Forever Wild Land Trust.  After leaving TNC in 2002, Kathy served as a consultant to numerous conservation organizations before being asked to return to Ruffner Mountain Nature Center as Executive Director in 2004 to lead a $5.5 million capital campaign and oversee construction of its award winning LEED certified visitor center, education pavilion and 3 acre wetland with boardwalk.  After construction of the visitor center was completed in summer 2009, Kathy semi-retired and resumed consulting work for conservation nonprofits and to spend more time with her family, especially her granddaughter, Jazmyn. 

Jan Garrett, “Land and Water Preservation and Sustainable Farming”

Jan is a Research Fellow with the Organic Vegetable Production Program at Auburn University.   She coordinates the organic vegetable research on the research stations, writes grants to support the program, and works with local farmers on organic production techniques, such as organic no-till.  She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network and conducts organic vegetable gardening and farming presentations for various groups throughout the state.  Currently she is involved in working with local groups to establish community gardens and community food systems.  She is a hobby gardener and teaches organic gardening workshops on her farm. 

Mike Kensler, “Effective Water Policy in Alabama”

Mike is the Outreach Programs Administrator for the Alabama Water Resources Institute at Auburn University.  Mike has a background in natural resource management and has previously worked with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the National Wildlife Federation.   Mike’s knowledge of habitat, watershed and conservation issues makes him a tremendous asset to the Center, as does his experience with field projects related to stream cleanup, habitat restoration, wetlands, and stormwater, among others. Currently, Mike is making the rounds on the Auburn campus and across the state meeting fellow water colleagues and getting feedback on ways in which the AU Water Resources Center and its researchers can help to address a variety of water quality and quantity issues throughout the region. 

Presdalene (Pres) Harris, “Community Organizing”

Pres works for Arise Citizens’ Policy Project as the Lead Organizer of a team of six. She has worked for Arise for more than 15 years. Arise is an organization that advocates for fairer state policies toward low income people in Alabama. Pres helps educate the Arise membership and general public about poverty issues through public speaking, presentations and workshop facilitation. Her work at Arise is fulfilling part of her call to service.  Pres has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Justice and Public Safety from Auburn University at Montgomery, a Master of Science Degree in Management from Troy University, Montgomery and has participated in various leadership development and training programs. She has lived in Montgomery, Alabama her entire life and enjoys spending time with family and friends, working in her church, funny movies, and good gospel/ inspirational music.  

Ashley Henderson, “Alabama Clean Water Partnership: Success Stories”

Ashley is the basin facilitator for the Alabama River CWP.  She has been the facilitator for the Alabama River Basin since January 2004. Ashley is a Professional Engineer and previously worked as a consulting engineer for municipal water and wastewater treatment plant and conveyance design. She soon became interested in non-point source pollution and the activities of the Clean Water Partnership. As facilitator, she has participated with the Alabama River Clean Water Partnership in the compilation of the Basin Management plan, the “Hooked on the Alabama River” City Art project, the Prattville Business Partners for Clean Water program and other educational activities. She is married and has 2 children.

Matt Landon, “Social Media and Media Coverage”

Matt is a full-time volunteer for United Mountain Defense.  United Mountain Defense (UMD) is a Knoxville based non-profit dedicated to protecting Tennessee's watersheds, air, mountains and communities. We have many years of experience working on issues relating to surface mining and its impacts on communities. A primary focus of UMD has been in scientific data collection, community organizing, and data collection and analysis from federal and state agencies. www.unitedmountaindefense.org.  Matt has spent countless hours helping Tennessee’s citizens and rivers recover from the disastrous TVA coal ash spill that happened in December of 2008.  

James Lowery, “Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment: A Nontechnical Overview”

James Lowery is retired from an administrative position at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and considers himself an “Amateur Scientist.”  He is involved in environmental education and is a member of nine environmental and science-related Boards of Directors and Advisory Councils, serving as an officer on five of the Boards.  He gives presentations concerning constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment, creeks and streams he has walked, Antarctica, and the Netherlands. He conducts guided tours of the Wetumpka (Alabama) Impact Crater (Astrobleme). He enjoys paddling whitewater rivers as a member of the Birmingham Canoe Club.  

Margo McKnight, “Wildlife Migration Corridors”

Margo is the Executive Director of the Wildlands Network. She is currently based in Thonotosassa, Florida.  Throughout her life, Margo McKnight has immersed herself in the wild world.  Growing up near the complex marine habitats and vast Everglades of south Florida, her passion for wild places inspired her from childhood to draw, paint and sculpt this world.  In college she slipped seamlessly back and forth between fine arts and natural sciences. Studying zoology in the field taught her to observe intimate details of birds, tortoises and marine life. She subsequently combined both her passions in a zoo and aquarium career where she became acquainted with more exotic species from around the world.  Her intrigue with wildlife and wilderness has taken her to New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Mexico, the Caribbean and a favorite wild place, the continent of Africa.  As she traveled the world, her passion to save quickly disappearing wild places became an urgent goal.  Preserving this threatened world became her vocation and she moved deeper into wilderness advocacy as director of Wildlands Network. Inspiring others with her art is as important to her soul as is her work in the field, in the office and in her lectures. Conserving the wild world also conserves humanity and all that makes us human. 

Jayme Oates, “Land and Water Preservation and Sustainable Farming”

Jayme is a Research Associate with the Alabama Water Watch Program at Auburn University. She works closely with cattle and poultry producers in Alabama, training them in water quality monitoring and environmental stewardship. She also works closely with poultry producers, using culinary and medicinal mushrooms to remediate poultry litter of pathogens and contaminants that affect water quality.  She conducts chemistry, bacteria, and biomonitoring workshops for adults, and Exploring Alabama’s Living Streams workshops for environmental educators and students around the state. In addition, she has experience managing a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) for the Auburn Community, producing seasonal vegetables, poultry, and rabbits using biodynamic and sustainable practices. She also manages three honey bee hives. 

Chris Oberholster, “The Forever Wild Program”

Chris Oberholster was born in South Africa, and has lived in Alabama for more than 20 years after coming to the state to obtain his Masters degree in Agronomy and Soils at Auburn University.  He is the State Director of the Alabama Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit conservation organization with offices throughout the US and the world. He has worked for The Nature Conservancy for almost 19 years in a variety of positions, including Botanist/Ecologist for the Alabama Natural Heritage Program in Montgomery, the Director of the Heritage Program, the Director of Science & Stewardship at the Alabama headquarters office in Birmingham, the Director of Conservation Programs, and now State Director. Chris oversees a staff of 16 people in several offices statewide, who are responsible for implementing all aspects of the Conservancy’s work in Alabama, including land, freshwater and marine management and restoration, partnership building, private fundraising, legislative affairs and land acquisition. He serves on several boards and advisory committees including the Alabama Forest Stewardship Advisory Committee, the Board of the Alabama Forest Resource Center, the Forestry and Natural Resources Advisory Council for Tuskegee University, and the Auburn University School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences Advisory Council. He lives in Hoover with his wife, Suzanne, and their two sons (Charl and Isaac) and one daughter (Anna).

Jennifer Pinkley, “Social Media and Media Coverage”

Jennifer is the Board Chair and Communication Chair for the Flint River Conservation Association in Huntsville, Alabama.  She is a 1992 Graduate of the University of Alabama Huntsville.  Jennifer enjoys caving, hiking, backpacking, writing, photography and paddling.  She lives in Taft, Tennessee with her husband Stephen. 

Mitch Reid, “Alabama Water Agenda Progress Report”

Mitch is the Program Director for the Alabama Rivers Alliance.  He is a 1998 graduate of The United States Military Academy at West Point and he will graduate this Spring from the University of Alabama School of Law, where he focused his studies in Environmental and International Law as well as Community Development. In addition to these achievements, Mitch has served as President of the University of Alabama School of Law's Environmental Law Society.  Mitch hales from Bellwood, Alabama, a small town in Southeast Alabama right on the Choctawhatchee River in Geneva, county.  He joined the staff of the Alabama Rivers Alliance in 2009.  

Matt Rice, "The True Cost of Reservoirs” and “Blue Trails”

Matt is the Associate Director of Southeast Conservation for American Rivers working to engage communities in the Southeast to protect river health by reconnecting people to their local rivers through blue trails. He also works to improve recreation, fisheries, water quality, and safety on hydropower dams through Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) dam re-licensings in the Southeast. Matt joined American Rivers in 2007. Prior to that he served with the Peace Corps for four years in Zambia, working on an aquaculture program and then as a provincial coordinator. 

Gil Rogers, “Alabama Water Agenda Progress Report” and “The True Cost of Reservoirs”

Southern Environmental Law Center Attorney, Gil Rogers, accepted the Georgia Water Conservationist of the Year award in 2005. Gil's work with the Georgia Water Coalition, an alliance of 118 environmental, recreational and civic groups, has yielded major victories in the Georgia legislature, including the defeat of a bill that would have privatized the water market. Gil's commitment to promoting the sound management and protection of Georgia's and Alabama’s water quality/ management and water resources resounds in his efforts to create water conservation policies for the states. Gil attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

Adam Snyder, “Introduction to Lobbying”

Adam R. Snyder is the Executive Director of Alabama’s only environmental lobbying organization, Conservation Alabama. Adam is also director of the voter education affiliate, the Conservation Alabama Foundation. Most recently, Adam served as Executive Director of the Alabama Rivers Alliance, a river protection and restoration non-profit established in 1997. Prior to joining the Alliance in 2001, Mr. Snyder worked at Operation New Birmingham, a downtown revitalization and race relations non-profit in Birmingham, Ala. He is an honor graduate from the University of South Carolina with a degree in print journalism. Mr. Snyder is a 2009 American Marshall Memorial Fellow, and a 2007 Environmental Leadership Program Fellow. A native of Alabama, Mr. Snyder is involved with a variety of civic and volunteer organizations in his hometown. He is married to Dr. Erin Snyder, a member of the internal medicine faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. They have one son, Robert Clarke.

Beth Stewart, “Stormwater Programs – Under Construction”

Beth Stewart has been Executive Director of the Cahaba River Society since 1995 and was founder and the first E.D. of the Kentucky Waterways Alliance. Beth has a Master's Degree in Landscape Architecture from The University of California, Berkeley, with an environmental and urban planning focus. She worked in the local government planning and zoning field for 17 years in Birmingham, New Orleans, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Bluegrass area of Kentucky, where she was the first full-time Planning Director for a small, historic county seat that became the location for a major Toyota plant.  In addition to her leadership of the Cahaba River Society, one of Alabama’s largest watershed protection nonprofits, Beth contributes to the Society’s programs on low impact development, storm water management, drinking water conservation, faith-based care of creation, and greenways. The Society co-founded the Alabama Urban Stormwater Partnership, an alliance of watershed groups, and continues to contribute to its joint work along with lead partner, Mobile Baykeeper. CRS also participates in the Southeast Stormwater Partners led by River Network.

Judy Takats, “The True Cost of Reservoirs”

Judy Takats’ love for water stems from her time spent on a family farm in Appalachia.  As a child, she explored creeks alone or with her siblings and cousins.   Her favorite activity was searching for crayfish among the cobble-bottom creeks.  As Senior Program Officer for World Wildlife Fund’s Southeast Rivers and Streams Program, she directs the Southeast Rivers and Streams Support Fund.  This mini-grant program awards funds to groups working to protect the diverse aquatic fauna of the Cumberland, Mobile and Tennessee River Basins.  She is very involved in advancing Tennessee water policy and dam relicensing in Alabama.  She also has a varied international background, having worked in the Kingdom of Tonga for three years and the Slovak Republic for over two years.  While in Tonga, she established a micro-enterprise loan program for youth businesses and developed curricula for and taught university and high school biology and ecology.  In the Slovak Republic, Judy worked to integrate environmental considerations into local development plans, including facilitating best management practices for construction of forestry roads.  Judy currently lives in Nashville, TN.

Gary Weil, Red Root Farm, “Land and Water Preservation and Sustainable Farming”

Located in scenic Banks, Alabama, Red Root Farm is both on the forefront of cutting edge organic farming techniques and a throwback to an earlier time of agricultural sustainability. Established in 2000, Red Root Farm uses exclusively organic procedures to produce a diverse array of crops including corn, peas, tomatoes, melons, peppers, sugar cane, and assorted members of the Cruciferous family. Blackberries, plums, and pecans align the Red Root Landscape. Within the next few years we are hoping to branch out into the production of various fruits such as figs and scuppernongs. An emphasis on sustainability is the cornerstone of the philosophy of Red Root Farm. Well water is used for irrigation when needed. In keeping with the sustainability philosophy and the need for community and family farm, Red Root uses a great deal of hand labor, which also reduces the need for some machinery. Currently five acres are under production with the possibility of more to come. Red Root is a part of a growing network of resistance to genetically modified foods and use of harmful pesticides. Red Root uses agricultural techniques such as cover cropping, composting, biodynamic, and permaculture. This process restores nutrients to the soil, nurtures the biodiversity, and helps to create harmony in the natural world instead of chemicals that harm the consumers of food as well as the environment.  Gary also works closely with Mike Mullen, Choctawhatchee Riverkeeper.